No Time like the Present: Making Rule of Law and Constitutional Competence the Theoretical and Practical Foundation for Public Administration Graduate Education Curriculum
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online December, 2011
No Time like the Present: Making Rule of Law and Constitutional Competence the Theoretical and Practical Foundation for Public Administration Graduate Education Curriculum
Most Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs across the United States focus extensively on policy analysis, management, and leadership, because organizations like the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) have determined that these areas comprise the core intellectual and practical dimensions of the MPA and MPP degrees. The omission of required curricula that emphasize the legal and constitutional basis of public administration theory and practice should be of central concern to the public administration education community. Constitutional competence as well as a wide understanding of how the rule the of law affects nearly every dimension of public administration is not optional for effective and responsible democratic governance in the 21st century. If MPA/MPP graduates enter the public sector workforce without the knowledge that they can be held personally and professionally liable if they violate citizens’ constitutionally protected rights, public administration educators have not provided them with some of the most important skills necessary for constitutionally competent public sector management.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BowmanJ.MenzelD. (Eds.). (1998). Teaching ethics and values in public administration programs.Albany: SUNY Press.
2.
BreyerS. (2005). Active liberty: Interpreting our democratic constitution.New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
3.
CampbellH. E. (2009). From the editor.Journal of Public Affairs Education, 15(2), iii–v.
4.
ConsidineM. (2001). Enterprising states: The public management of welfare-to-work.Oakleigh, Victoria Australia: Cambridge University Press.
5.
CookB. J. (1996). Bureaucracy and self-government: Reconsidering the role of public administration in American politics.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
6.
CookeJ. E. (1961). The Federalist.Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
7.
CooperP. (1997). Public laws as a set of tools for management. In NewlandC. A. (Ed.), Handbook of public law and administration (pp. 104–120). San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
8.
CooperP. (2007). Public law and public administration (4th ed.). Florence, KY: Thompson-Wadsworth Publishers.
9.
CooperT. (1998). The responsible administrator: An approach to ethics for the administrative role (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
10.
DobelJ. P. (1999). Public integrity.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
11.
GoodnowF. J. (1900). Politics and administration.New York: Macmillan.
12.
GoreA. (1993). From red tape to results: Creating a government that works better and costs less: The report of the national performance review.Washington, DC: U. S.Government Printing Office.
13.
GreenbergK. J.DratelJ. L.GrossmanJ. S. (2008). The enemy combatant papers: American justice, the courts, and the war on terror.New York: Cambridge University Press.
14.
Hamdiv. Rumsfeld, 542 U. S. 507 (2004).
15.
Harlowv. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 800 (1982).
16.
HenryN.GoodsellC. T.LynnL. E.Jr.StiversC.WamsleyG. L. (2009). Understanding excellence in public administration: The report of the task force on educating for excellence in the master of public administration degree of the American society for public administration.Journal of Public Affairs Education, 15(2), 117–133.
17.
LeeY. S.RosenbloomD. H. (2005). A reasonable public servant: Constitutional foundations of administrative conduct in the United States.Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
18.
LightP. (1997). The tides of reform: Making government work, 1945–1995.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
19.
LoefflerE. (1997). The modernization of the public sector in an international comparative perspective: Implementation in Germany, Great Britain and the United States.Speyer, Germany: Forshungsinstitut Fur Offentliche Verwaltung.
20.
MoeR. C.GilmourR. S. (1995). Rediscovering principles of public administration: The neglected foundation of public law.Public Administration Review, 55(2), 135–146.
21.
NASPAA Standards. (2009). Commission on peer review and accreditation. Retrieved fromwww.naspaa.org/accreditation/standard2009/docs/NS2009FinalVote10.16.2009.pdf
22.
NewboldS. P. (2008). Teaching organization theory from a constitutional perspective: A new twist on an old flame.Journal of Public Affairs Education, 14(2), 335–351.
23.
NewboldS. P. (2010). Toward a constitutional school for American public administration.Public Administration Review, 70(4), 538–546.
24.
NewboldS. P.TerryL. D. (2008). From the new public management to the new democratic governance: Leadership opportunities and challenges.” In MorseR. S.BussT. F. (Eds.), Innovations in public leadership development (pp. 33–49). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
PeterT. (1992). Liberation management: Necessary disorganization for the nanosecond nineties.New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
27.
RichardsonW. D. (1997). Democracy, bureaucracy, and character: Founding Thought.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
28.
RohrJ. A. (1986). To run a constitution: The legitimacy of the administrative state.Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
29.
RohrJ. A. (1990). The constitutional case for public administration. In WamsleyG. L. (Ed.), Refounding public administration. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
30.
RohrJ. A. (1998). Public service, ethics, and constitutional practice.Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
31.
RohrJ. A. (2002). Civil servants and their constitutions.Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
32.
RosenbloomD. H. (1983). Public administration theory and the separation of powers.Public Administration Review, 43(3), 219–227.
33.
RohrJ. A. (2000). Building a legislative-centered public administration: Congress and the administrative state, 1946–1999.Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
34.
RohrJ. A. (2003). Administrative law for public managers.Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
35.
RosenbloomD. H.CarrollJames D.CarrollJonathon D. (2004). Constitutional competence for public managers: Cases and commentary.Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock.
36.
RosenbloomD. H.O’LearyR. (1997). Public administration and law (2nd ed.). New York: Marcel Dekker.
37.
SpicerM. W. (1995). The founders, the constitution, and public administration: A conflict in world views.Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
38.
TerryL. D. (1998). Administrative leadership, neo-managerialism, and the public management movement.Public Administration Review, 58(3), 194–200.
39.
TerryL. D. (2003). Leadership of public bureaucracies: The administrator as conservator. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
40.
TerryL. D. (2006). The thinning of administrative institutions. In RosenbloomD. H.McCurdyH. E. (Eds.), Revisiting Waldo’s administrative state. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
41.
WaldoD. (1948). The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public administration.New York: Ronald Press Company.
42.
WamsleyG. (Ed.). (1990). Refounding public administration.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
43.
WhiteL. D. (1927). Introduction to the study of public administration.New York: Macmillan.
44.
WilsonW. (1887). The study of administration.Political Science Quarterly, 2, 197–222.
